COPPER TWEED, a transmedia weekly

ProblemThere are thousands upon thousands of creators producing free digital content in effort to build a fan base and develop a portfolio to acquire paid work. With such an overwhelming volume of content available, audiences need mechanisms to find more needles and less haystacks: quality content presented in a format that allows for discovery, with a focus on storytelling. The editors of Copper TWEED are members of the creative class and in response to this problem we are designing a digital weekly periodical where content creators can build a fan base of patrons and achieve economies of scale by collaborating with other creators within the community.

DifferentiatorThe leading digital media channels monetize based on an volume model where they house large catalogs of aggregated content and use algorithms to determine which pieces best drive traffic, thus generating the highest possible ad revenues. Our monetization strategy is based on the “1000 True Fans” theory where if each true fan spends $100 a year, a creator can make $100,000 off their work. By selectively assembling a community of talented, prolific storytellers and packaging their work as an editorialized weekly, creators will be exposed to both their natural audience and the audiences of the other creators in the community; additionally, creating a tight knit community makes it feasible for creators within the community to collaborate, thus creating more monetizable content.

MotivationThough the “internet” has totally disrupted the media industry and largely devalued content, we believe there is opportunity in this period of chaos to create digital models that give rise to online and offline monetization opportunities. Our team, which consists of three principals each with nearly 10 years experience in transmedia production, branding, and new media, has recognized that within digital media there is a lack of channels that produce original content and provide creators with opportunities to be compensated for their work. Our motivation in building Copper TWEED is to use the disruptive force of technology to favorably shift the economics of creativity towards creators.

Competition-Maker Studios, one of the largest creators of episodic, entertainment-focused, web video content online.-Blip.tv, a platform for web series that also offers a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions.-VHX.tv, an online video platform that is developing an artist program meant to help artists to monetize their video assets in a direct-to-fan fashion.-Flipboard, a popular digital magazine app that is making its first foray into video by creating YouTube based channels covering a variety of topics including cooking, music, and science.-Grantland, a website dedicated to sports and pop culture targeting fans of smart, long-form journalism.